Noob-ish Stick Burner Question

[WhiskyJoe]

Hi Folks,

1) awesome forum. I've learned more about meat here than anywhere else. [I've also learned that meat cooks better when the chef has an ample beer supply. THanks for that.]

2) I have a LSG 48" offset. I can rock this thing for small items: single brisket, 2 pork butts, etc. However, when I have a LOT of meat to cook, I run into trouble. Could use some help. I understand dropping cold meat into the smoker will drop the temp. Normally I target 200 on the Tel-Tru for a 225 temp. I've run a lot of experiments with a zillion thermometers and the "+25" seems to be right for temp. When I have a TON of meat though I run into trouble. Superbowl weekend, I made an 8' pork shoulder, 6 racks of ribs and a billion chicken wings at the same time. I targeted 200 and the bottom of all the ribs were burnt (i.e. destroyed). How do y'all monitor temps with a LOT of meat vs a small amount? I think I put too much fuel on to sustain the "200" range. However, the temp never rose about 225 on the Tel-Tru. Could use some expert advice here....

 

[sudsandswine]

Is it possible your thermometer stem was touching, or close to touching the meat? That'll definitely skew your readings.

 

[WhiskyJoe]

awww crap. yes that's possible. If you have multiple full shelves, how do you handle that? 3rd party probes? Just need 10 yrs of experience screwing up meat?

 

[sudsandswine]

Position the items strategically to not touch the stems (if possible), or maybe swap to thermometers with shorter stems. I had 5" Tel Tru's on my last Shirley and they had pretty long stems....5 or 6", and I ran into this a few times. Not sure how a shorter stem might affect accuracy for your particular smoker.

 

[txsmkmstr]

This is going to be counter-intuitive to your whole post but my LSG doesn't really like to churn at 225* - seems like the sweet spot is 250*-275* once you get the coal base formed.

I also notice a drop in temperature when placing cold meat near (but not touching) the probe and always try to leave a gap for airflow when cooking. I also leave my oven thermometers (2 - one at each end) in place on the rack during the cook. Keeps me honest although I've learned not to sweat differences - just keep an average temp going.

Post up what you figure out so others can learn too. :thumb:

 

[Vision]

Not an offset guy but could all the meat have restricted the airflow so the readings were inaccurate?

 

[Headgear]

I have been smoking on all kinds of cookers for the last 20 years+/-, and I have finally been running two different offsets for the past 3 months. So I have limited experience with them. But one thing I have noticed is that they seem to cook faster. Because of that, I pretty much never trust temperature gauges alone and always use an additional Smoke-x and wireless thermometer too. I check both ambient and meat, in several different ways, just as a backup. I never cook the quantities that you are talking about, but having one or more different measurements may help.

 

[1MoreFord]

I'll second the thought that 225F is not a good temp to run stick burners. My ole stick burner greatly preferred to run at 250F or higher. I could run 225 by burning charcoal, but when burning sticks it struggled and 250F or higher was the way to go.
I'll also ask if you have boil tested and ice water tested your thermometer?

 

[Connor_Macleod]

Welcome! +1 on the idea of using one or more additional calibrated temperature probes to keep an eye on the cook chamber temperature.

To measure the cook chamber temperature with a probe while cooking, I recommend sitting the probe on top of a small board or other piece of wood so the probe is not directly touching the steel grate. Ideally, you would place it such that the metal part of the probe touching only air, not the grate or even the wood.

Also, to decrease radiant heat, you might be able to find a way to put a heat shield between the firebox opening and the meat such that the meat can't "see" the fire. I do this by propping up a baking pan underneath the lower grate close to the firebox opening so that there's not a direct line of sight between the flames/coals and the meat. Caveat: don't do this in such a way that it would block the airflow through the cook chamber.

 

[bned]

How are you running the LSG? If it is like mine you can use the baffles in it, so it is a bottom up smoker. If you leave the baffles out it will be a top down smoker. I have always left the baffles out, so it is a top down smoker. There is a small deflector plate by the fire box that pushes the hot air down some. If I run the stack a 40% closed the heat goes up quick so the Hotspot is right next to the firebox. If the stack is open the hotspot can move a foot or so from the firebox. The hotter the fire the more draw there is so the further the hotspot moves. So if the ribs were right next to each other, no space between them, and on the firebox end, the heat could not go up. This would cause all the heat to stay under the ribs and burn the bottom. I have never noticed a hotspot on the stack end like some people talk about on other smokers. When you cook one item on back half of the cooking chamber the heat has time rise, move across the smoker and cook from the top down and you have great results. Once you figure out how playing with the stack damper and where the hotspot is you can use it to your advantage. Stack open more air movement more conviction heat, stack closed some less are movement and the heat will back up some in the cook chamber. I always have the firebox gate wide open. Some food like wings can be in the hotspot, this will crisp up the skin and they can be flipped. Ribs more towards the stack. Also need some space between food for air movement.

 

[Seefyre]

Cooking with live fire boils down to fire mangement and airflow. Lets say you are properly managing your fire, AND you have run a bisquet test to know your airflow and hotspots. Now you load your pit to the gills.....you have potentially drastically changed the cooking characteristics of your pit. You can create mini "jet streams" of heat and smoke as it finds its way past all those obstructions causing uneven cooks. Repetitons, and paying close attenton early in the cook helps especially if you keep notes in a BBQ journal so you can refer back to these less frequent large cooks. Finally, rotating, flipping or otherwise moving your food can help minimize sub-optimal airflow conditions on a loaded out pit. Again, keep notes and keep on smokin'!